Best/east way to loop riffs

[alex1fly]

I want to record a riff, then loop it so I can solo over it. Quick, easy, when I'm in a good jam, capture the moment. Electric/acoustic and electric.


Ideally, I could press "record", jam on the riff a few times in succession, pick out the version I like the best. Save the clip for later jamming. Do I have to record myself playing the riff over and over?



What I have: mac laptop, garageband, pc tower, Toneport DI box, practice amp with Record Out, an average mic somewhere. I'm willing to buy software if its reasonably priced.



Does anyone do this kind of thing? Improving over my progressions and riffs would add so much to jam sessions.


Line 6 Riffworks anyone?

 

[alex1fly]

Re: Best/east way to loop riffs

The problem I have is arranging. I have cool runs here and there, and I want to isolate them and move them around. I'm not having a lot of luck w/ Garageband there - not enough fine control.


Maybe something where I can lock tempo, move around individual measures, add drum tracks at a designated tempo.

 

[alex1fly]

Re: Best/east way to loop riffs

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=891465

Here's what I have so far, a backing track with excerpts of improv. How can I take it to the next level - arrange, add a drum machine and bass tracks? The sound quality is pretty good IMO for a laptop mic.

 

[DankStar]

Re: Best/east way to loop riffs

well, I guess you'd need to start with at least finding the bpm of the song so you can lay down a click. once that's established, you could pretty much have loops of all sorts of stuff and just move them around within the tune (will be much easier if the song is 4/4 or stuff that adds up to 4/4). I think you can record your riffs and establish those in GB as loops too - just add them to the repository of loops. just have to make sure the length is of a typical loop, not some oddball length. the click is sort of a compromise if you like to have a lot of tempo changes - you could click out the tempo changes, but it would make for some very difficult loop-type arranging I think.

can't really help you much more since I pretty much always get the arranging done during the programming of the drums. then the whole song is a loop I can practice soloing over and fiddling around with 3rd guitar kinda stuff.

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: Best/east way to loop riffs

Logic Express for your Mac. You can set up loop points and record multiple passes without stopping, then pick the best one. My suggestion.